The Ontario Graduate Scholarship(s) (OGS) program offers, merit based, annual scholarships[1] to eligible students who will pursue graduate studies in order to complete a master's degree, PhD or doctorate at a university in Ontario, Canada.
The student must satisfy eligibility criteria and maintain a minimum academic standard of an "A−" or 80% average[2][3][4] over the preceding two years of study[5] in order to qualify for the scholarship.
The recipient student must attend a full-time graduate program in Ontario during the course of the scholarship award,[6] but may hold part-time employment of no more than 10 hours per week.
[11] The endowment established six annual awards that would provide $5,000 of matching funds for an OGS recipient at UW.
[13] In 2010, the Italian Cultural Centre of Durham donated $30,000, about one third of the total from the Oshawa Italian Recreation Club, to create an endowment for five annual OGS scholarships and eleven undergraduate scholarships for the University of Ontario Institute of Technology.
[14] The endowment enables an exchange program with the Polytechnic University of Turin, which signed a letter of intent for three scholarships.
[20] Each professor assesses several characteristics of the candidate student, specifically background preparation, originality, ability at research, research potential, industriousness, judgement, oral and written skills, and overall ability,[21] within the top 2%, 5%, 10%, 20%, 50% or bottom 50% of students at a similar stage previously evaluated by that professor.
[1] Selections are based on reports to the ministry by an advisory agency known as the Selection Board (Ontario Graduate Scholarship),[25] established on 1 September 1975, which consists of a chairman and eight board members appointed by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario for an indefinite term.
The panel will reject without qualification any application from a student that does not satisfy the eligibility criteria or is not submitted by the deadline.
The ministry notifies successful applicants by mid-April,[26] to which it must receive a complete Notice of Acceptance from the student by the end of June.
[26] The student may request a deferral of the award of up to 16 months[26] for medical reasons, a maternity or paternity leave, or on compassionate grounds for exceptional circumstances.